DECISION 2016: Clinton family makes L.A. push

Former President Bill Clinton campaigns for Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton ahead of the June 7 California primary by speaking at an event in Honor of Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month at the Garden Suite Hotel on Western Avenue in Los Angeles, May 4, 2016.

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Former President Bill Clinton made the case for sending his wife to the Oval Office during a speech Wednesday that referred to the San Bernardino terrorist attack and avoided direct attacks against Republican Donald Trump.

Bill Clinton spoke to a crowd of cheering supporters at the Garden Suite hotel in Los Angeles during an event recognizing Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

He spoke in San Diego earlier in the day. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is set to speak at East Los Angeles College in Monterey Park on Thursday afternoon, May 5.

The ex-president described his wife as someone who can work with Republicans and has the best ideas and experience to lead all Americans to prosperity.

“We want to rise together as we did in the 1990s,” Bill Clinton said. “This country cannot live without the potential of doing better.

“You read about all these depressed places in America. The thing that’s most depressing is (the mindset in which) people believe that every tomorrow will be like yesterday.”

Bill Clinton called for an end to income inequality. There are jobs to be created, he said, in clean energy and infrastructure, including removing old lead pipes such as those that contaminated the drinking water in Flint, Mich.

Banking regulations enacted after the 2008 economic crisis have gone too far in restricting lending to small businesses, he added, saying Hillary Clinton wants to free up capital for small business owners.

He also touted his wife’s plan for making college more affordable. The problem with free tuition at public colleges and universities (as Sanders has proposed) is that states would have to provide a money match, he said.

“I don’t believe the California Legislature can afford to do that,” he said. “You don't have enough money to put into higher education as it is.”

Hillary Clinton, he said, wants to make more financial aid available to the neediest students, make more work/study available and limit what is paid on student debt to 10 percent of someone’s income.

“Think what this could do – everyone could move out of their parents’ home,” he said to laughter. Lowering the debt burden also would free up graduates to start a business.”

The ex-president referred twice to the San Bernardino attack, first when he spoke out against demonizing Muslims.

“It’s important to remember that these people (the shooters) were converted over the Internet, over the social media,” he said.

In a veiled reference to Trump’s call for a Mexican border wall, Bill Clinton said walls would be build all around the country, but there’s no way of keeping out social media.

Bill Clinton also mentioned San Bernardino when calling for more police as well as reforms to prevent police brutality. The police who responded to the attack “risked their lives ... to save people without regard to their religion, their race, their income or anything,” he said.

In what could be interpreted as a dig at Trump, the ex-president said the world today is much more troubled than when he was in the White House.

He said that many countries that cherish freedom are drawn “to Putin-like governments” and authoritarian leaders who say things like, “Let's keep all the foreigners out.”

“When we get to the point ... where we think all that matters is our differences and our insecurities overcome our hopes, we’re in trouble,” he said.

“You cannot afford to elect a president that doesn’t understand this.”

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